Whether you’re watching a scary movie late at night or telling spooky stories around a campfire, the threat of ghosts sometimes seems all too real. You may see a hazy figure in white moving towards you, and frightened as you might be, you could turn to a ghost sighting for the explanation. This, however, could just be the light casting illusions across the ground. Are these so-called ghost sightings just our subconscious minds mixing up our imaginations with reality? New research suggests that that might be the case.

These mysterious presences are not uncommon. According to the Pew Research Center in Washington DC, these ghost sightings are experienced by almost 20% of the American population. Many have experienced them during nighttime, and some even claim to have had an experience with a ghost during the peak hours of daylight. 

In order to find out the truth behind these superstitions, Dean Peterson, a video maker on Vox, and Kathryn Hulick, an author for Science News for Students, have gathered information from many sources and put together their own informative video and article. Both these “ghost hunters” agree that whether subconsciously or alertly, these stories point to our mind playing tricks on us.

Sleep paralysis is one of the most noted suspects. This not-so-common occurrence happens during the state between being fully awake and completely asleep, an experience usually during the twilight hours, and is associated with very vivid dreams. The strange thing about this phenomenon is that the body is paralyzed, but the eyes are scurrying back and forth aggressively under their sockets. According to Hulick, paralysis most likely prevents the body from reacting to the severe images that the body is experiencing during this time. During these waking dreams, or while “dreaming with your eyes open,” as Baland Jalal, a researcher at Harvard University, calls them, a person may feel as though they are waking up while still asleep. Coupled with paralysis and terrifying visions, a person experiencing the sensation of waking up might believe in a ghost sighting if they had no idea what was going on.

Another thing often blamed as ghost visits are hallucinations. Hulick observes that these hallucinations, or pareidolia, are usually the cause of our brains trying to fill in gaps of information. Whenever an image is registered by the human eye or sound is heard by the human ear, it is a recreation of what the brain senses. Sometimes, there are gaps in what the brain sees and hears, leading the brain to imagine some of the information. During the dark, when the pupils are less dilated and can’t take in enough information, the brain has a greater tendency to fill in the unknown. This may lead to a greater amount of paranormal sights during the nighttime.

Hallucinations are also associated with another phenomenon called misperceived self-representation. Olaf Blanke, a neurologist studying human behavior, conducted a test in which he measured how people reacted to occurrences that happened at unexpected times, such as an object not reaching its destination until a few seconds after it was supposed to. He found that these misperceived self-representations left people feeling as if there was an uncalled presence in the room.

In addition, hallucinations are known to take place due to the frequency that a few objects resonate at. Some things, such as fans and humpback whales, resonate at the frequency of infrasound (a frequency that lies below 20 Hz). If these objects resonate at 18 Hz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, a science communicator that earned his postdoctoral research associate from Princeton University, determines that because the object is at the same frequency as the human eye, the objects will cause the eyes to vibrate. Since the movement in the eyes obscures the focus of their vision, the brain will make up what it can’t see, just like in the dark.

Hulick additionally points to inattentional blindness as a cause of paranormal superstitions. She states that if a person has their attention set towards one thing, they might miss something happening in the background of the same scene. A video released by Daniel J. Simons in 1999 was noted for its inattentional blindness. In the video, people in white or black clothes passed a few basketballs to each other and viewers were asked to count the passes between the people. In the middle, there was a surprise guest that came in, but more than half of viewers claim that they did not notice this guest. This is due in large part to viewers focusing on the task at hand and zoning out any unneeded details. But how does this come back to people believing in ghosts? Say that you are focused on completing a project that is due first thing in the morning, but you procrastinated on it until now. If you hear a rustle and see the curtains moving from the corner of your eye, you might not notice the stray cat lurking there. Later, when you recall the events of last night, you might feel spooked after remembering the curtains slapping against the window and realize that there was no wind that night. Just like in this scenario, information that is lost in the process of inattentional blindness can lead people to fill in the explanations with ghosts instead.

Lastly, another reason that people believe that they have seen ghosts is because they expect to have visits from their dead loved ones. El Día de Los Muertos, a celebration in Mexico known as the Day of the Dead, revolves entirely around this idea. The Day of the Dead represents happiness and reunion with lost ones. Families will put flowers, food, decorations, and pictures on ofrendas in the hope that their great grandparents or other deceased relatives come back to Earth and celebrate the day with them. People dress up as ghosts so that the spirits feel welcome in the world. These beliefs don’t only abide in this part of the world; in fact, they are seen everywhere. In the book Hallucinations, author Oliver Sacks notes that if someone experiences the death of a loved one, they might receive visits from the deceased spirit. According to Sacks, these visions actually help people cope with the grief of death. As a matter of fact, Peterson believes that these ghostly visits are actually part of the mourning process.

Whether it be caused by sleep paralysis, hallucinations, or grief, ghost sightings are very frequent occurrences in the real world. These unnatural incidents may leave you extremely frightened or greatly comfort you, but whether what you sense is real is up to you. So, the next time you are watching a horror movie or listening to spooky stories around the campfire, think twice be careful to not let your imagination get the best of you.

 

written by Aesha Kapoor

edited by Saanvi Gutta and Keerthi Selvam

 

References

(2018). Why Do People See Ghosts? Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://blogs.bcm.edu/2018/10/26/why-do-people-see-ghosts/. 

Chabris, C., & Simons, D. (2010). YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo. 

Hulick, K. (2021, March 18). The Science of Ghosts. Science News for Students. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/science-ghosts. 

Peterson, D. (2017, July 11). Why people think they see ghosts. Vox. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/7/11/15948234/do-ghosts-exist. 

Stock, M. (2015, April 29). Scientists create ‘ghosts’ in the lab by tricking the brain. Reuters. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-switzerland-laboratory-ghosts/scientists-create-ghosts-in-the-lab-by-tricking-the-brain-idUSKBN0NK1A020150429. 

YouTube. (2009). YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgOTaXhbqPQ.